Hoshiarpur, Punjab (March 29, 2014): Sikh body, Dal Khalsa, on Friday criticized the Indian government for not supporting the US backed UN resolution seeking credible, independent and international probe into war crimes and human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
H S Dhami
The organisation’s head H.S. Dhami, in a statement said India’s ‘reaction’ should be viewed in the backdrop of its own record of ‘gross human rights violations’ meted out to the Sikhs, Kashmiris and other ethnic minorities. He said India has betrayed Tamils and damaged their cause time and again.
Mr. Dhami said that while the western countries had supported the US sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, India remained absent from voting in the election held on Thursday (March 26) on the pretext that US proposal was not consistent with the UNHRC principles. “India’s silence is not new. It has always maintained double standards on contentious issues and many times it had done somersaults.”
He said their group wants that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his coterie must stand trial for war crimes and rights violations. He said their organisation had submitted a memo in the office of UN Human Rights High Commissioner Ms Navi Pillay fully supporting the move for international investigation into human rights violations in Sri Lanka during the last phase of the civil war there.